Switchable Catalysis Publication

Matt has just co-authored a publication in Journal of the American Chemical Society with the Miller group at UNC resulting from some of his sabbatical work. The paper describes a powerful approach to switchable catalysis, where hydrogen bonding of a pendant crown ether to a bound ammine ligand can serve as a gate to catalysis that opens in the presence of cations that disrupt hydrogen bonding. The situation is analogous to biological systems, but this approach has not previously been demonstrated in synthetic systems. Congrats especially to Sebas, also to other Miller group members for their fantastic work!

Hot Paper!

Our recent paper on using cobalt silylenes as platforms for group-transfer reactions has been designated as a “Hot Paper” by Angewandte Chemie! This is awesome news, congratulations to all involved! The paper is also dedicated to the memory of Prof. Bob Grubbs, a true luminary in chemistry and a caring mentor to many generations of students, postdocs, and faculty (including Matt).

Cooperative CO2 Scission Paper is Out!

This one has been a long time coming, but it has been worth the wait!  Check out this fantastic work in Organometallics by Jim Zhang ’18, Teddy Donnell ’17, Paul Peterson ’18, and Mike Trenerry ’18, as well as our awesome collaborators Prof. Buck Taylor (and student Vanessa Eng) and Prof. Daron Janzen.  We provide experimental and computational evidence for silicon-assisted CO2 cleavage by an anomalous insertion mechanism, highlighting another mechanism by which silicon can play a key role in transforming CO2.

New Organometallics Paper

Check out our recent collaborative work with Buck Taylor’s (University of Portland) lab on a combined experimental and computational approach to understanding unusual competitive mechanisms in alkene hydrogenation by Rh catalysts!  This paper describes work by Kate DeMeulenaere ’18 and Mike Trenerry ’18.  Congrats to all involved on this well-deserved recognition of some excellent work!